Rice Introduces Bill to Require Election Security Reports for Congress and State Election Officials

(Washington, D.C. - October 31, 2020 - (The Ponder News) -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (D-NY, 4th), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced the Election Security Assessments Act (H.R. 8697), which would require the Director of National Intelligence to submit annual reports on pre-election threats to Federal elections to Members of Congress and State election officials.

“Foreign interference in our elections represents one of the gravest threats to American democracy in the history of our nation,” said Rep. Kathleen Rice. “Given what is at stake, it is absurd that Director Ratcliffe and the Trump Administration at large have been tight-lipped and dismissive about these threats. Seemingly for fear of harming the President politically. The Election Security Assessments Act will require that information sharing take place and ensure that Congress and State election officials are not left in the dark about the threats facing our elections.”

Rice’s introduction of the Election Security Assessments Acts comes following Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s decision to scale back election security briefings to Congress. These briefings were retrenched despite U.S. intelligence that Russia and other actors are still interfering in the 2020 election.

Full text of the Election Security Assessments Act can be found here.